343 Industries says it is making progress on visual enhancements, UI refresh concepts, and more for Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
Saying Halo: The Master Chief Collection got off to a rough start after its launch in 2014 would be an understatement. Developer 343 Industries worked to fix a number of issues related to performance and matchmaking, but there are still lingering issues impacting the game. In late 2017, however, 343 Industries announced it would be revisiting The Master Chief Collection to tackle a range of issues still plaguing the game, while also working on visual enhancements for Xbox one X.
In January, we got our first look at how things were going with the update, including 343 Industries' plans to improve matchmaking and some snags the team encountered with compatibility issues for some fixes. In a new post on the Halo Waypoint blog, Halo Community Manager Brian Jarrard has provided another status update on the team's progress and plans.
According to Jarrard, progress is moving along on visual enhancements, UI refresh concepts, networking improvements, and planning for flighting test builds to Xbox Insiders in the future. Specifically, the team is continuing to work on an "intelligent delivery" system, which will allow for incremental downloads of specific game content. "This means that rather than having to download the entire MCC game package under various scenarios, players can download an initial install, and then select other games, languages, and content areas they want to download from there." the team says.
In terms of visual updates, the team is making progress on enhancements for Xbox One X. Though there isn't much in the way of specific details, Jeremy Cook, art director for the project, says to expect higher fidelity and clarity by the time things are finished.
Jarrard says that the team is actively testing multiplayer optimizations and improvements as well. Along with general improvements to the matchmaking platform, 343 has implemented "continuous matchmaking," which automatically places players into the next game session after a match ends, rather than taking them to the matchmaking lobby. The team is also planning to add a custom game browser to The Master Chief Collection.
Though 343 isn't ready to announce anything just yet, Jarrard says that planning for testing fixes with Xbox Insiders continues as well.
While work is progressing, it feels as if it will be some time before players start to see any large-scale changes rolled out to The Master Chief Collection. Still, fixes and improvements, not to mention visual treats for Xbox One X owners, will be welcome after the game's rough ride thus far.